Animal Activist Wants to Reduce Orange County's Kill Rate

A well-known animal activist asked the Orange County Board of Supervisors Tuesday to add at least $50,000 to the animal care budget for the coming year to reduce what she said was a roughly 50 percent overall euthanization rate.

"This complacency our society has developed over killing ... is very dangerous and has to stop," Rose Tingle told the board as they fine-tuned the county's $5.4 billion budget. Of the total, the board controls about $3 billion.

Supervisors are considering increases in various fees to help close a $626,000 funding gap in the $18 million animal care budget, subsidized by 17 member cities.

Closing the animal shelter in Orange on Mondays could save about $167,000. Other proposed cuts include eliminating a part-time community outreach worker, a public education employee and an overnight supervisor, as well as reducing overtime by 25 percent, which would save about $137,200.

Supervisors have list of options that would net about $800,000 in revenue or cost savings.

Tingle said Orange County spends less on animal services than any comparable Southern California County and was farther than most from becoming a "no-kill" department. OC Animal Care takes in about 30,000 creatures per year.

According to the department, about half of the cats taken in were eventually euthanized in 2013, but only about 10 percent of dogs were put to death.

— City News Service